Lit Genius
Comparison of Divine Comedy Translations
Reverend Henry Francis Cary (1805–1814):
Here sighs with lamentations and loud moans
Resounded through the air pierc'd by no star,
That e'en I wept at entering.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1867):
There sighs, complaints, and ululations loud
Resounded through the air without a star,
Whence I, at the beginning, wept thereat.
Charles Eliot Norton (1891–1892):
Here sighs, laments, and deep wailings were resounding though the starless air; wherefore at first I wept thereat.
Allen Mandelbaum (1980–1984):
Here sighs and lamentations and loud cries
were echoing across the starless air,
so that, as soon as I set out, I wept.
James Finn Cotter (1988)
Here heartsick sighs and groanings and shrill cries
Re-echoed through the air devoid of stars,
So that, but started, I broke down in tears.
Robert and Jean Hollander (2000–2007):
Now sighs, loud wailing, lamentation
resounded through the starless air,
so that I too began to weep.